Tennessee Gov.-elect Bill Lee and his small team of advisers will spend much of the next two months in a windowless room, seated around a conference table.

Before Lee gets into the office in the state Capitol, he has roughly 75 days to assemble his governing team.

Now, wearing more suits than the jeans and plaid he sported on the campaign trail, Lee will appoint 23 commissioners for each state department.

He must craft a policy agenda for the upcoming legislative session, which begins a week before Lee is inaugurated.

He will need to figure out a budget for the next fiscal year, while preparing for the governor’s annual State of the State address shortly after taking office.

And there are a lot of thank-you calls to make.

“The irony is that you spend two years campaigning, and then you have from Election Day to inauguration to put together your team and Cabinet to govern for the next four years,” said Tom Ingram, a Republican political consultant who led the transition team of Gov. Bill Haslam, as well as Govs. Don Sundquist and Lamar Alexander.

Working out of Lt. Gov. Randy McNally’s old office at the nearly empty Legislative Plaza, Lee is getting in the rhythm of coming downtown every day.

Photos from throughout his campaign line the walls in the waiting area and conference room, but Lee hasn't yet got around to decorating his own temporary office, which he says will likely be pictures of his grandkids.

Governor-elect Bill Lee and his wife, Maria, and Governor Bill Haslam and his wife, Crissy, walk together to a joint press conference on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018 at the Tennessee State Capitol. Shelley Mays/The Tennessean

Governor-elect Bill Lee and his wife, Maria, and Governor Bill Haslam and his wife, Crissy, walk together to a joint press conference on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018 at the Tennessee State Capitol. Shelley Mays/The Tennessean

“I actually called my wife and said, ‘I will be home for dinner,’ ” Lee said in an interview.

As an executive who has run a 1,200-employee company, he knows the importance of building a team to keep the machine running. But government is a different type of machine, one that is new to Lee.

“You sit down with a commissioner and they start to tell you all of the things that they do, and you realize those are things you need to learn, and you can’t learn them in two months,” Lee said. “But you learn pretty quickly that you better have experts for all of the things that need to be done.”

Where Lee had years to assemble a team of experts at Lee Company, he has two months to do that for the state of Tennessee.

How Bill Lee will pick his new team

Lee's team of advisers includes Butch Eley, chairman of the transition team; Blake Harris, executive director of the team; and Chris Devaney, deputy director and legislative liaison.

There is no formal search committee. They’re casting a wide net, planning to bring “dozens” of people to their conference table to weigh in on matters of policy and Cabinet appointments. They’ll hear leaders in agriculture, law enforcement, health care, tourism, education, business and more.

Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee and his wife, Maria, greet supporters after he spoke at a Republican Unity Rally at the Musicians Hall of Fame in Municipal Auditorium on Aug. 4, 2018, in Nashville. Mark Zaleski/ For The Tennessean

Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee speaks to supporters as his wife, Maria, looks on during a Republican Unity Rally at the Musicians Hall of Fame in Municipal Auditorium on Aug. 4, 2018, in Nashville. Mark Zaleski/ For The Tennessean

Gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee and his wife, Maria, arrive at SoKno Market for a town hall meeting in South Knoxville on June 28, 2018. At left is the moderator of the meeting, Glenn Jacobs. Michael Patrick/News Sentinel

Bill Lee and his wife, Maria, put their suitcases in the bus as they joined with other top-tier gubernatorial and Senate candidates at the West Tennessee Strawberry Festival parade May 11, 2018, in Humboldt, Tenn. Larry McCormack / The Tennessean

That means the departments of Economic and Community Development, Labor and Workforce Development, Education, Correction, and Safety & Homeland Security will all be crucial to carrying out Lee’s policy agenda.

In addition, Lee has discussed his emphasis on creating opportunity in rural Tennessee, meaning the Department of Agriculture also will be an important piece of the puzzle, he said.

While Lee wouldn’t say directly whether any commissioners will keep their jobs as he attempts to find “the best and brightest and most competent and qualified person for every position,” with the governor’s office remaining in Republican hands, it’s not unreasonable that some department leaders could be left in place.

Lee team must forge relationships with legislature

Lee also must come up with his legislative agenda.

Devaney, who is tasked with working with the Tennessee General Assembly, said he suspects the governor-elect will want to continue in some form Haslam's practice of weekly meetings with legislative leadership.

Lee has friendly relationships with all three representatives running for speaker of the House: Reps. Glen Casada, R-Franklin; Curtis Johnson, R-Clarksville; and David Hawk, R-Greeneville.

But neither he nor the transition team will be wading into the politics of the Nov. 20 caucus election, Devaney confirmed.

Cade Cothren, director of communications for the House Republican Caucus, said their legislative priorities are still up in the air until leadership is ironed out and the meetings with Lee continue.

Devaney declined to say what the first piece of Lee-backed legislation would be in the upcoming session.

But a Lee administration is certainly good news for Republicans in the General Assembly. Cothren described the tone among House Republicans as one of excitement with Lee at the helm of state government.

'You are not the governor by yourself'

Beyond receiving crash courses in a range of policy matters, Lee, lacking any prior government experience, also will have to learn the ropes of holding office.

Though he served as mayor of Knoxville before voters elected him governor, Haslam, speaking at a joint news conference with Lee on Wednesday morning, recalled his own realization of what he'd need to learn on the job.

"You spend the better part of two years running for this job, and now you're ready to do it," Haslam said. "You realize there's a lot you don’t know."

To help in the process, each department completed a continuity of state operations book ahead of the transition, something Lee said has been helpful.

Haslam's office planned to sit down immediately with Lee's team to talk through a budget for the next fiscal year — which, getting right, is the most important part of state operations, Haslam said.

"One of the things I appreciate about Bill is he understands this job is about building a great group of people," Haslam said.